Working barrel for oil wells



Sept. 1 3, 1927.

A. H. CARNES ET AL WORKING BARREL FOR OILWELLS Fi1'ed N0v.16, 1925 2 sheets-shewu l IIIIIII. .Illll .H.Carnes} gmwms H. M. Marr Y 1,642,601 Sept' 13 1927' A. H. CARNES ET AL WORKING BARREL FOR OIL WELLS Filed Nov; 16, 1925 2 sheets-sheet 2 allor 1w.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921.

UNITED STATES l 1,642,601 PATENT oFFicE.

ALFRED H. CARNES AND RIZAL I. MARR, F OKEMAH, OKLAHOMA; SAID MARR AS- BIGNOR 0F ONE-FOURTH TO SAID CARNES AND ONE-FOURTH T0 MRS. J. D. BEL- FORD, 0F OXEIAH, OILAHOIA.

WORKING BARREL FOR OIL WELLS.

Application led November 16,1925. Serial No. 69,416.

The` object of the invention is to provide a working barrel of simple construction and get adzpted to completely eliminate the troules or inarily encountered in pumping wells where gas is produced from the same sand as the oil and, if allowed to enterthe working barrel, will prevent the free seating of the valves; to rovide a construction in which the sand will be a propriately trapped to revent its being rawn into the working arrel on the suction strokes and thus clog nlp the pumping equipment; to provide for t e movement of a lar er volume of fluid than normally without t e increase in len h l5 of stroke of the pump Hiaten or the spee of the ump; and genera y to prolong the life of t e pumping equipment comprisin the valves and their associated parts a the sucker rods and the machinery b which they are operated, thereby cutting own pulling ex enses and re lacement costs.

ith this object in view, the invention consists in a construction and combination of parts of which a preferred embodiment is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a central vertical sectional view through the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the upper end of the working barrel. l

Fi re 3 is a transverse sectional view on the ane indicated by the line 3-3 of Figure Figure 4 is an enlarged central vertical sectional view of the working barrel in the region of the standing valve.

i re 5 is a transverse sectional view on the p ane indicated by the line 5-5 of Figure Figure 6 is an enlarged sectional view just below the plane of the standing valve.

Fi re 7 is a similar view of the lower or terminal portion of the working barrel.

Figures-8, 9, 10 and 11 are res ctively transverse sectional views on the p anes indicated by the lines 8-,8, 9--9, 10-10 and 11--11 of Figure 7.

The barrel 20, which is designed for sinking in the well from which the oil is to be removed, is closed at the lower end `with a plug 21 and at the upper end receives a couplin member 22 threadingtly engaged with the arrel and interiorly t readed for' connectipn with the standing pipe 23. The coupling member 22 is provided with eripheral wickers 24 for engagement with a ing tool by which the barrel may be removed from the well.

Interiorly to the barrel and engaged at its upper end with the coupling member 22 is the working cylinder 25 which communicates with the standing pipe 23 through the coupling member 22. In the working cylinder is mounted the working valve 26 having the usual suction cups 26, the ball valve'26" and eral form of the working valve, having the ball 27 normally closing the o ening through the valve and unseating on t e upward stroke of the working valve to permit raising the Huid to the working cylinder. The standing valve carries the usual valve cage 27b to insure the return of the ball 27 to its seat upon the cessation of such lsuction. The body of the standing valve 27 is over-size, thus providing a larger opening therethrough than normal] so that a lar e volume of oil or fluid may e drawn into t e working cylinder on the uplstroke of tli'e working valve.

The standing valve 27 is connected by means of a coupling 29 with the working cylinder at the lower end of the latter and to the lower end of thestanding valve is coupled an intake tube 30 disposedwithin a salparator tube 31 whiri is connected to t lower end of the body of the standing valve but not in` communication with the passage therethrough, as is the intake tube. The lower end of the separator tube extends below the plane of the bottom of the. intake tube 30 and connects with a guidev cap 32 cut away at its periphery to leave the spaced radial lugs 33 which abut the interior surface of the barrel 20. These lugs maintain the separator pipe centrally disposed with respect to the barrel 20 and the spaces 34 between them and the periphery of the cap 32 and the interior wall of the barrel provide openings through which the sand may pass to reach the sand trap 35, being the space between the ca 32 and the plug 2l.

Into the lower en of the plug 2l is inserted an anchor stud 36 which may engage upon the bottom of the well and thus anchor the working barrel to preclude lateral movement in its operation.

' The separator tube 3l is provided with a plurality of pertorations 37" arranged in uniformly spaced vertical series, the lowermost units oi' which are .disposed above the plane OLE the bottom of the intake tube 30 which is open at its lower end.

Vhen the apparatus is inserted in an oil well, it is lowered until the barrel is completely immersed in the contents, when the oil, with whatever sand it ina have gathered, enters the barrel through t e openings 33. The combined area of these openings is in excess of the combined area of the perforations 37 .in the separator pipe. The oil continues to enter the barrel until it shall have reached a height in the latter to the level of the openings 38.y But to reach this level in the barrel, it must also enter the separator tube 3l which it does through the perforations 37, rising in the separator pipe and also in the intake tube 30 which it enters through the bottom end of the latter. Whatever sand may be in the oil will drop by ravity through the openings 34 defined by t 1e lugs 33 and the exterior and interior perforations of the cap 32 and the barrel 20, thus entering the sand trap 35. It the pressure is suicient, the oil rising through the intake tube 30 will ass the standing valve 27'and enter the wor ring cylinder to be elevated by the working valve through the standing pipe 23. This arrangement, it will be noted, always rovides 'for oil, free ot sand and impurities, eing present in the working cylinder and thus the elements ot neither the standing valve nor the working valve are subjected to l the deleterious eiiiects of these 'foreign substances. On the 11p-stroke of the working valve, it always draws on-the pure oil in the working cylinder and there no tendency to draw sand in the cylinder since the impurities have been fully settled out prior to the oil entering the intake pipe 30. 'What gas is present rises to the surface exterior to the workingbarrel and will therefore not be taken into the working cylinder with its ever-present tendency to keep the valve elements in either the standing or the working valves in unseated positions.

The separator tube 31 above the plane ot the perforations 37 and the intake tube 30 are respectively provided with the perforations 39 and 40, so that in the event of the oil supply failing, so that the working barrel may not be supplied to the level ot the intake openings 38, the level may never drop neaacoi below the plane ot the pertorations 39 and 40. fdhould the supply cease for any reason, the working valve will continue to remove the oil until the level in the working barrel shall have dropped to the plane of the perforation 39, after which no further oil may be removed, since the continued operation of the working valve will only result in the intake ot air through the openings 38 and the perforations 39 and 40.

rlhe openings 33 have a combined area sufn ticient to permit the annular space defined by the working barrel and the working cylinder and separator tube being always filled with oil, so long as the producing strata continues to supply a suiicient amount for the work ot the pump. This volume of oil consti-tutes a 'fluid seal which serves the dual purpose of preventing gas from enterin the working barrel and shielding the wa s of the well from the effects of the suction of the pump, thereby preventing the sucking-in of the sand with its consequent deleterious effeet on the pumping apparatus. What sand 1 enters the working barrel does not do so as a result ot suction and provision is made 'for trapping this as above explained..

rlhe invention having been described, what is claimed as new and useful is:

1. Apparatus comprising a working barrel, a working cylinder housed within the workingbarrel and being of less diameter than the latter to provide an annular space between the two, an over-size standing valve connected to the lower end of the working cylinder, a working valve operating in the working cylinder, an intake tube connected with the lower end of the standing valve, and a separator tube surrounding the intake tube 'and having intake openings in commumcation with the annular space in the working barrel above the plane of the intake of the intake tube, the working barrel having in take openings above the plane ot the intake openings of the separator tube and exceeding in area the area of the intake openings of the latter, the separator tube having a cap closing its lower end and the working barrel having a plug closing its lower end and spaced from the cap ot the separator tube, the ca of the separator tube having radial lugs a uttin the wall of the working barrel and defining openings eiiectin communication between the annular space 1n the workin barrel and the space below the separator tu e cap.

2. Apparatus comprising a working barrel, a working cylinder housed within the barrel and spaced from the walls thereof, standing and working valves housed within the working cylinder, a separator tube, an intake tube enclosed by the separator tube and in communication with the standing valve, the intake tube being open at its lower end, the separator tube extending below the plane of the lower extremity of the intake tube, a guide cap attached and closing the lower end of the se arator tube and having spaced radial lugs a utting the interior wall 5 of the barrel, and a closure attached to the lower end of the working barrel, said closure being spaced from the guide cap, the separator tube having series of lateral perforations above the lane of the lower end of the intake tube an the workin barrel having intake openings above the plne of said perforations.

.In testimony whereof they aiiix their signatures. f

ALFRED H. CARNES. RIZAL M. MARR. 

